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A Personal Flying Robot

Apple persistently tries to come up with new ideas before Microsoft or Google can think of them. This time they seem to have succeeded. One of the latest iPhone apps adds another feature to Apple’s arsenal: a flying drone. The Parrot AR.Drone is a remote controlled hovercraft that can be steered using an iPhone app. It’s design gives it more stability than most remote controlled helicopters (it has four propeller blades instead of just one, making it look like something from The Incredibles). The drone is much more expensive than the usual $40 remote controlled helicopters, pricing at around $500, but it is also much more advanced. The four propellers give it an incredible amount of stability and control.

The iPhone app even lets you “see what the drone is seeing”, and steer it as if you were actually sitting in the cockpit. Also, if you fly it out of range of your iPhone’s WiFi, instead of simply crashing, the drone will continue hovering in place until you come back into range.